iOS 5 Security Flaw Lets Anyone View Your Contacts or Recent Calls

Apple’s iOS devices have seen plenty of passcode-related security flaws in the past. iPhoneIslam (via Macgasm) points out a new security flaw that could allow anyone with access to your phone, a paperclip, and a fair bit of patience to view your call history, or even see your entire address book. I recommend pushing forward to about 2:40 in the below video to save yourself some time.

I’m not sure how likely this scenario is – for someone to gain access to your iPhone for several minutes – long enough to eject your SIM card multiple times without being noticed. Still, if your iPhone is swiped, this could be a significant point of concern.

As you can see, the trick relies on trying to make a call using the missed call notification, then ejecting and reinserting the SIM card. The hack only works if your device currently doesn’t have a signal (hence the SIM card trickery).

The bug is definitely a problem that needs to be patched, to be sure, but its unclear how much any individual iPhone user should really worry about this in the meantime.

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Now I can steal peoples’ contacts!….if they happen to have a missed call on screen…and I happen to have a paperclip…and they happen to leave their phone on the table.

Author

J. Glenn Künzler

Glenn is Managing Editor at MacTrast, and has been using a Mac since he bought his first MacBook Pro in 2006. Now he's up to his neck in Apple, and owns an old iBook, a 2012 iMac with an extra Thunderbolt display for good measure, a 4th-generation iPad, an iPad mini, 2 iPhones, and a Mac Mini that lives at the neighbor's house. He lives in a small town in Utah, enjoys bacon more than you can possibly imagine, and is severely addicted to pie.